Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has ordered Syngenta Seeds, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned ChemChina, to divest its 160 acres of agricultural land within the state. This mandate originated from Arkansas’s Act 636 of 2023, termed To Amend the Law Concerning Ownership and Possession of Real Property, which curtails foreign possession of Arkansas’s agricultural lands.
The Act carries stringent penalties for breaches and bars particular foreign entities from owning stakes in Arkansas’s farming sectors. Of crucial importance to Act 636 is its definition of “prohibited foreign party,” covering citizens or residents of countries listed by federal International Traffic in Arms Regulations, such as Iran, North Korea, and notably, China.
This provision gained saliency following ChemChina’s substantial 2017 acquisition of Syngenta. Further adding to the scrutiny, the US Department of Defense categorised ChemChina as a “Chinese military company” operating within the U.S in October 2022.
The directive from Arkansas officials has been forthright and immediate. Attorney General Tim Griffin delineated the national security interests and defense of Arkansas’s agricultural assets.”Griffin explained, “I am ordering ChemChina, as a ‘prohibited foreign-party-controlled business’ to divest this land within two years… Additionally, as the owner failed to file in a timely manner documents required by Act 1046 of 2021… I am also imposing a civil penalty of $280,000…”
With the significant involvement of high-ranking state officials, this decision signifies one major instance of the broader set of mechanisms international law firms and corporations must navigate amid a rapidly evolving global legal landscape.